Christopher Clark

A jazz vocal group consisting of mainly new or emerging artists. Personnel includes Daryl Bosteels, Melissa Hamilton, Van Hawk, Christopher Humphrey, Jeff Auger, Marty Ballou, Fred Haas, and Les Harris, Jr. They've made four albums thus far for Denon, one a Christmas release, with their most recent effort featuring a guest stint from Clark Terry. In spite of this CD being self-titled, it is not the first recording by the vocal quartet the Ritz, but their initial release in a series of discs for Denon. The group had been in existence for five years at the time of these studio sessions. They do a great job with a fun-filled driving take of Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry," a lush arrangement of the moving "It Never Entered My Mind," an almost runaway Latin-flavored "Invitation," as well as a tightly negotiated through the ultimate bop roller coaster, "Scrapple From the Apple."

Lalo Schifrin - The Dissection and Reconstruction of Music (1966) {Verve Elite Edition 314 537 751-2 rel 1997}
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© 1966, 1997 Verve Records | 314 537 751-2 | Verve Elite Edition
Jazz / Bop / Third Stream / Hard Swing / Modern Big Band

Come again? This crackpot title – probably the longest ever concocted for a jazz album – actually is a front for a not-so-dangerous, hard-swinging album in which Schifrin invents or borrows 18th-century classical themes and sets them into big band or small-combo contexts. Such is Schifrin's chameleonic mastery that his own inventions are a match for the themes of the period, and he is tasteful enough not to overload the window dressing and keep the rhythm section loosely swinging nearly all the time.

Mackerras's recording probably introduced a whole new generation to the once familiar magnificence of Israel in Egypt, and in the normal run of gramophone history it would enjoyed a kinder fate than to be superseded within five years by the Christ Church, Oxford recording under Simon Preston (Argo ZRG817/8, 4/76). That in turn has had to face competition from a similarly intense virtuoso performance under John Eliot Gardiner (Erato STU71245, 1/80). Compared with these, Mackerras's version is milder, less sharply etched in detail, less dramatic in impact. Even so, it is firmly directed, with fine orchestral playing and spirited choral work. It may well appeal afresh to listeners who feel they have had just a bit too much of conductors who burn so bright that their individuality tends to focus attention upon the performance rather than the work. The work itself, of course, has its own fire. Despite borrowings from Stradella and others, the inspiration is white-hot, and in the Plague choruses of Part 1 and ''The people shall hear'', in Part 2, Mackerras's forces rise worthily to the occasion.

– Gramophone